Dakota Taylor Interview Feb 2013

1. In your film revolution that is Pink8 Manifesto, you describe that film school is poison. Why?

Because in art and film you shouldnt have restrictions and boundaries, but what schools psychologically do istry to cut your balls off when it comes to being creative, and why take advice off of teachers who didnt have the nerve and guts tostake a claim in the real world. You dont need to be taught how to be creative, you either have it or you dont and the sooner you realize that the quicker you'll stop giving your money to the universities and put it towards making your debut feature film.Creative Universities should be closed down, it's better to learn by having an internship or researching solo in your spare time, classrooms are a joke. Its a young world for film so let it mutate, all you need is bravery.

2. Can you tell us about your next project?

It's called Pregnant, which is about how everyone has become an internet or technology junkie, in the film the main characters solutionis to escape to the desert in search of a vision which kills him.Part of it has been shot in the Spanish desert near the Sunseed commune. I spent a week there without any internet or phones, nothing but conversations. It was like being a cave man. When I came back to England it was the biggest culture shock, I felt really overwhelmed by how everyone looked so worried and rundown by the modern world. It's killing us. Commercials coming at you from every direction, press, constant noise, it's a rat race that cant be won. Now on top of that we have all these social networking sites that chain you to your computer. Middle men, negotiations, and safe choices have taken over

3. The strangest experience you had while filming Black Biscuit?

Too many. Being hounded by the police; who accused me of kidnapping and confiscated my footage several other times. Viva Pussyriot. Being stalked by a murderer called Foot Foot, anarchists who wanted to take me to France and have me film them staging a coup on the government, having a candle put up my dick, I ended up breaking my heel after falling out of a tree. The whole experience was like an LSD trip. I enjoyed it because I wanted to make cinema under my own terms and it ended up debasing, and burning me. Experiences give you character, sometimes it's more rewarding walking 500 miles instead of traveling first class.

4. What was the message you were conveying to the audience?

To find your own journey, and to stop wasting time hanging out at the crossroads with the devil. I wanted to convey how it is whenyou havent made up your mind with what to do with your life. It happens to everyone and some people find their path while others become wild, and out of control. But misfits and lost social rebels have an inner fire and peace that the so called ''sane'' people dont have, so maybe living on the road of excess that leads to the palace of wisdom is the holy way. As long as your happy when you die, that's the main ingredient.

5. How much of the movie was scripted?

Non of it I dont script, I have a loose scene outline in my mind and then I tell people what it is I want and then I let them go. Nobody memorized anything, or was shown a story board. I treat people like artists not little children who have to be told what to do. The Pink8 manifesto was a way to encapsulate the whole experience of how I made Black Biscuit on cell phones and childrens cameras on no budget, I put the manifesto together after the film was finished. It was like being a film DJ, I knew I wanted to focus on people that society condemns to be social outcasts, so I'd walk around the city streets and look for these types of characters; who are very smart and opinionated, and I wanted to give them a platform to express their lives. We have a lot to learn from them.

6. Any plans to make a scripted movie in the future?

No way, it would be like going backwards. Scripts arent reality, scriptwriters and critics have ruined cinema because they've created a fakecode of rules for people to live by. Kids are being educated by films and TV not by the real world. Mainstream Cinema has ruined humanityit's like an opium dream world, a dummy for the masses. My films capture the ecstasy of reality and it's strangeness. Im the Indian runner. Be a creator not a critic.